Allagash Waterway Trout Study Yields Impressive Data

July 17, 2017

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New Hampshire Fisheries Division biologists from the Ashland Region recently ended a one-year project on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway where they evaluated the brook trout population.

The biologists focused work on Big Eagle and Churchill Lakes and fish passing through the Churchill Dam fishway. In total, nearly 1,500 brook trout were tallied in trap nets set at both lakes and through the fishway in 2016 and 2017. “It’s clear from the work over the past 2 years that the trout population on this section of the waterway is robust,” the biologists stated in a report.

The report also notes that the researchers found significant movement of fish between the lakes, and from the lakes through the fishway in both the summer and fall. Some trout that spawn downstream of Churchill Dam spend the winter there and return to Churchill and Big Eagle Lakes for the summer, likely to take advantage of more abundant forage.